For separating or partitioning rooms or for closing room openings or window openings often sliding elements are used, such as sliding doors made of glass or wood, which are typically guided along a rail by means of two carriages. U.S. Pat. No. 9,290,977B2 discloses a device with carriages that are movable along rails. The device allows moving a sliding element in front of a room opening and finally against the room opening in order to close it tightly. The carriages are arranged on the upper side of the sliding element, wherefore the sliding element at the upper side can precisely be guided against the room opening. Hence, in preferred embodiments a seal or sealing gasket provided between the sliding element and the edge of the room opening can be contacted and compressed by a desired degree. In order to precisely execute this operation not only at the upper side, but also at the lower side of the sliding element, a guide device is provided at the lower side of the sliding element, with which the lower side of the sliding element is guided.
Guide devices of this kind, which for example are also disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,678,280A, typically comprise a mounting part and at least one guide member. The mounting part is fastened by mounting screws to the floor and positioned such, that the guide member laterally adjoins the lower side of the sliding element or engages in a groove provided therein so that the sliding element is guided in a defined plane. Due to the fact that after installation often a displacement of the guide device relative to the moving direction of the sliding element is required, the mounting part is often provided with longitudinal slots, through which mounting screws are guided.
In the event that an adjustment is required, the mounting screws are released e.g. by a turn, whereafter the guide device is displaced within an adjustment range that is defined by the length of the longitudinal slots. This adjustment procedure can only be executed when the sliding element has been moved away from the guide device. Then it is estimated by what degree the guide device needs to be displaced. It is therefore possible that the adjustment procedure needs to be repeated with considerable effort several times.
The U.S. Pat. No. 9,290,977B2 discloses as an alternative a guide device with a guide member, which contacts the lower side of the sliding element, as described, with a guide element and which can be rotated relative to the mounting part. For this purpose, the guide member is eccentrically designed, pivotally supported and enclosed within the mounting part and fixable by means of a fixing screw. After releasing the fixing screw the guide member can be turned, until the guide element is positioned as desired. Due to the integration of the eccentrically designed and therefore relatively voluminous guide member a relatively voluminous mounting part results. In spite of this the adjustment range of the guide device is relatively small and amounts to a fraction of the width of the mounting part. Further, adjustment typically also requires a plurality of trials. Furthermore, it needs to be taken care that the guide member does not automatically get released under the impact of force exerted by the sliding element.
WO2012031313 discloses a guide assembly for a folding panel assembly, the guide assembly including a first body section for locating the assembly in a guide channel and a second body section for carrying a bolt that passes through a hinge for attachment to a folding panel, wherein the second body section is pivotally mounted to the first body section so as to adopt either a left or right handed orientation relative to the first body section. This allows replacing two different guide devices by a single guide assembly which can be set either to a first or to a second configuration. In spite of the complex design, this guide assembly, which comprises a joint mechanism and a locking mechanism, does not allow adjustment of the second body section, which can be changed between two opposite positions only.